Post by greenhert on Apr 23, 2020 13:45:00 GMT
Stoke-on-Trent South was created in 1950 mainly from the old Stoke seat. It consists of Blurton, Fenton, Longton, Meir and Trentham within Stoke-on-Trent.
Stoke-on-Trent South is a rather mixed area, comprising the "old money" village of Trentham and the associated gardens, nouveau riche areas like Meir Park, and old coalmining communities. Like the rest of Stoke-on-Trent this constituency had a lot of potterymaking, now largely gone as with the coalmining. It is the most affluent of the three Stoke-on-Trent constituencies but the Fenton and Longton areas still have significant deprivation levels, so it is also the most unequal constituency of Stoke-on-Trent in socioeconomic terms. Like the rest of Stoke-on-Trent it has a high proportion of people with no qualifications (33.5%) and a low level of degree holders (15.8%), a majority of whom live in either Trentham or Meir Park.
Stoke-on-Trent South was a Labour seat from 1950 to 2017 but throughout it always had the strongest Conservative vote of the three Stoke constituencies, bolstered mainly by Trentham which used to be the only safe Conservative ward in Stoke-on-Trent, although Trentham did elect Labour councillors in the mid-1990s. From 1966 to 1992 it was notably represented by Jack Ashley (later Lord Ashley) who became profoundly deaf just one year after he was elected; he became a passionate campaigner for the rights of people with disabilities as a result. In 2010 the Labour majority was reduced to just 4,130, the lowest since 1987, and it became a prime Conservative target from that point onwards until 2017 when Jack Brereton defeated Rob Flello to become the first Conservative MP to represent anywhere in Stoke-on-Trent since 1931. Mr Flello subsequently defected from Labour to the Liberal Democrats and was initially selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate in his old seat, but he was subsequently deselected when his opposition to same-sex marriage and his pro-life views came to light. Mr Brereton's majority ballooned in 2019 to 11,271 on a swing as high as 13.4%, making this seat now a safe Conservative seat, especially when bolstered by the gains at local level in wards in this constituency seven months prior to the 2019 general election. In the local elections of 2019, 6 of the 8 Conservative gains in Stoke-on-Trent were in wards within the boundaries of this seat and one of them, Meir Park, obtained the highest Conservative majority by percentage in the country that May.
Stoke-on-Trent South is a rather mixed area, comprising the "old money" village of Trentham and the associated gardens, nouveau riche areas like Meir Park, and old coalmining communities. Like the rest of Stoke-on-Trent this constituency had a lot of potterymaking, now largely gone as with the coalmining. It is the most affluent of the three Stoke-on-Trent constituencies but the Fenton and Longton areas still have significant deprivation levels, so it is also the most unequal constituency of Stoke-on-Trent in socioeconomic terms. Like the rest of Stoke-on-Trent it has a high proportion of people with no qualifications (33.5%) and a low level of degree holders (15.8%), a majority of whom live in either Trentham or Meir Park.
Stoke-on-Trent South was a Labour seat from 1950 to 2017 but throughout it always had the strongest Conservative vote of the three Stoke constituencies, bolstered mainly by Trentham which used to be the only safe Conservative ward in Stoke-on-Trent, although Trentham did elect Labour councillors in the mid-1990s. From 1966 to 1992 it was notably represented by Jack Ashley (later Lord Ashley) who became profoundly deaf just one year after he was elected; he became a passionate campaigner for the rights of people with disabilities as a result. In 2010 the Labour majority was reduced to just 4,130, the lowest since 1987, and it became a prime Conservative target from that point onwards until 2017 when Jack Brereton defeated Rob Flello to become the first Conservative MP to represent anywhere in Stoke-on-Trent since 1931. Mr Flello subsequently defected from Labour to the Liberal Democrats and was initially selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate in his old seat, but he was subsequently deselected when his opposition to same-sex marriage and his pro-life views came to light. Mr Brereton's majority ballooned in 2019 to 11,271 on a swing as high as 13.4%, making this seat now a safe Conservative seat, especially when bolstered by the gains at local level in wards in this constituency seven months prior to the 2019 general election. In the local elections of 2019, 6 of the 8 Conservative gains in Stoke-on-Trent were in wards within the boundaries of this seat and one of them, Meir Park, obtained the highest Conservative majority by percentage in the country that May.
